Theatre review: Mrs Doubtfire

I have absolutely nothing against the increasing amount of musicals based on movies; since they began to appear a century ago musicals have been a genre that more often than not adapted existing stories. Cinema has now been around long enough that it provides a vast library of material to provide inspiration, and I've enjoyed many shows based on stories that first appeared on film. Still, it's all in what you do with it, and a show has to offer more than just a nostalgia trip for fans of the original. Wayne Kirkpatrick (music & lyrics,) Karey Kirkpatrick (book, music & lyrics) and John O'Farrell's (book) adaptation of Mrs Doubtfire doesn't have that extra reason to exist, and the ways it does expand on the film are almost weirder than the story itself. Daniel Hillard (Gabriel Vick) is a hyperactive unemployed actor and impressionist, who's more of a friend than a parent to his three kids.

Tired of having an overgrown child for a husband, his wife Miranda (Laura Tebbutt) divorces him, and Daniel is given only a few hours' weekly access to Lydia (understudy Amy Everett,) Christopher (Max Bispham, alternating with Elliot Mugume and Frankie Treadaway*) and Natalie (Ava Posniak, alternating with Scarlett Davies and Angelica-Pearl Scott.)

When Miranda announces she's going to hire a nanny to help out while her business takes off, Daniel comes up with the extreme measure of piling on a mountain of prosthetics, putting on something approximating a Scottish accent, and applying for the job himself in the guise of Mrs Doubtfire. As well as spending more time with his kids, it means he can try to sabotage his ex-wife's new relationship with Stu (Samuel Edwards.)

Chris Columbus' film is now thirty years old, and this adaptation is one of those whose place in time is as eerily off as the title character's uncanny valley mask: Nominally set in the present day, with smartphones, references to Margot Robbie and Joe Biden, and Mrs Doubtfire punishing the kids by turning off the WiFi, its faithfulness to the original script's jokes means the majority of the references feel at the very least a bit dusty. I doubt I've seen the film much more recently than when it originally came out, so I imagine Daniel's gay brother Frank (Cameron Blakely) and his husband Andre (Marcus Collins) have been significantly toned down, but not quite enough for them not to feel like an outdated stereotype; if anything this just feels a bit off as well, like they're still meant to be a joke, but with the punchline taken away.

But there's moments that are specific to the musical that also feel weirdly dated: Notably an early number coming up with potential inspirations for Daniel's alter ego, that ends up with Princess Di, Margaret Thatcher, Donna Summer and Eleanor Roosevelt dancing around the stage, with Madonna mentioned as a particularly risqué and modern possibility. There's gags about Riverdance, flossing, Boris Johnson and the King's bloody pen, any pop culture reference seems to be an option as long as it doesn't feel quite up to date.

At some point I got the feeling that I was watching one of The Simpsons' spoof musicals, and it was a thought I found impossible to shift: Not just in the randomness of what might crop up next but in the songs, which are rarely good. This isn't the creative team's first musical but it feels like it - in fact it feels like a parody of musical theatre clichés a lot of the time, a musical as imagined by people who don't really know much about musicals. Everybody's on the verge of breaking into song all the time, but when they do it doesn't seem to go anywhere. Tebbutt gets a big emotional number with a big power note to get applause. Why? Well because this is roughly the point in a show where the leading lady has a big emotional number with a big power note. Besides, her character doesn't really have a personality so at least let her belt a couple of lines out. Also, what is the point of having a British writer on the team if a line about the width of Mrs Doubtfire's fanny still makes it into the script?

It's good to see Vick back acting in musical theatre, if only because it means he's too busy to write it, but this is another oddly mixed element: On the one hand he must be one of the safest bets in years to pick up an Olivier next winter, and he puts in the extraordinary energy that defines Jerry Zaks' production. On the other he can't quite match Robin Williams' charm enough to deflect from how selfish and annoying Daniel is. It probably doesn't help that one of the comedy impressions that are meant to endear him to us is Yoda, an easy play for laughs that is guaranteed to make my teeth itch - even Eugenius! struggled to get me back after one of those†. And with most of his time spent changing in and out of his old lady disguise for farcical purposes, it occured to me late on that he has very little singing to do for a musical theatre leading man. Maybe, in the end, a full version of Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off! would have been the more entertaining option.

Mrs Doubtfire by Wayne Kirkpatrick, Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell, based on the film by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon, and the novel Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine, is booking until the 2nd of June 2024 at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.

*yeah, I guess that acting dynasty's onto its second generation

†if you can do Yoda you can do Miss Piggy so why wouldn't you do that, instead of just putting a couple of words out of order so you don't have to think of an actual joke?